Method of joining the edges of a shoe outer

ABSTRACT

1,173,020. Seaming non-metallic sheet material. CLARKS Ltd. 13 Jan., 1967 [14 Jan., 1966], No. 1967/66. Heading B5K. [Also in Division A3] A method of making a shoe includes the step of using an adhesive which does not require heat for activation e.g. a pressure-sensitive adhesive, to effect the top line seam and at least some of the seaming of the outer and/or lining of the upper. As described a shoe upper 1 is formed from two blanks 1A and 1B joined to-. gether along a side seam 2 and a preferably straight back seam 10. The seams 2 and 10 are formed by lap joints using a cold setting adhesive, the edges of the blanks being skived so that the joint is of uniform thickness, and the joints may be reinforced by stitching. The lining 12 is formed in a similar manner with its side seam on the opposite side to the seam 2 and is bonded to the outer 1 by adhesive 15 (Fig. 4). The top edge of the upper blank is skived as shown in Fig. 2 and is folded back on itself as shown in Fig. 4. A reinforcing tape 11 is bonded in the fold by a cold-setting adhesive and the lining 12 is bonded to the rebate skive 6 by an adhesive 14.

A. w. FREER 3,427,673 METHOD OF JOINING THE EDGES OF A SHOE OUTER Feb. 1, 1969 Filed Jan. 16, 19s? Sheet A. w. FREER 3,427,573 METHOD OF JOINING THE EDGES CF SHOE OUTER Feb. 18, 3969 Sheet Filed Jan. 16, 1967 United States Patent 1,967 66 US. Cl. 12-446 13 Claims Int. Cl. A43d 11 A43b 23/00 ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A method of joining the edges of uppers during manufacturing of a shoe. The method comprises forming at least some of the seaming of the shoe outer by applying to the edge portions an adhesive which does not require heat for activation. The edge portions of the components of the shoe outer are then directly secured together.

This invention is concerned with the manufacture of footwear, and particularly of shoes, to the making of which the invention is especially applicable and accordingly, and for convenience, the term shoe will be used hereinafter.

More particularly the invention relates to the construction of a shoe upper, i.e. the assembly of the component parts, including the seaming of the upper. The upper may be a so-called seamless upper, that is, one in which the outer material (hereinafter referred to as the outer) and the lining each comprise a single substantially horse-shoe or U-shaped blank or it may be a side seamed shoe, in which case the outer and the lining may, for instance, each be constituted by a substantially J-shaped blank and an extension seamed to the shorter limb of the I to provide the required substantially horse-shoe or U-shaped blanks, usually with the lining seam on the opposite side to the seam in the outer. There are, of course, other known forms of outers and linings, such as those providing an upper with two side seams or an upper with a seam along the centre of the top. To all these and other forms of shoe uppers the present invention is generally applicable.

According to this invention there is provided a method of manufacturing a shoe comprising the step of using for effecting some at least of the seaming of the outer and/ or for at least some of the seaming of a lining an adhesive which does not require heat for activation of the adhesive.

According to a preferred feature of the invention the mating faces of edge portions to be seamed together by said adhesive are skived to reduce the thickness of the edge portions.

According to another preferred feature of the invention applied to the seaming of the shoe outer, the back seam of the outer is straight and said adhesive is used for forming the back seam. Preferably, the back seam is formed whilst the outer is in the flat.

The use of an adhesive which does not require heat for activation of the adhesive is hereinafter termed cold adhesive bonding or cold bonding.

Cold adhesive bonding (which can be done with moderate pressure) may be used for back seaming, and also for side seaming and for longitudinal or transverse toe seaming of the outer. Moreover, cold bonding may be 3,427,673 Patented Feb. 18, 1969 applied only to, say, the side seam or seams of the outer, the outer back seam and other scams being made by sewing in known manner. It has been assumed that the outer of the upper is composed of natural or artificial leather or of a plastics material, but cold bonding can alternatively or additionally be used for the seaming of fabric linings, as well as those of leather or a plastics material. Cold bonded seams can be made which dispense with the need for stitching at the seams, but stitching may be used to supplement the cold adhesive bonding or applied simply for its decorative elfect or to simulate a plain sewn seam.

Toe puffs and heel stiifeners may be added when the upper is in the round, that is, after back seam closing, but it is preferred that the back seam is straight and is bonded whilst the outer is in the fiat and that the puffs and stitfeners are added whilst the outer remains in the flat since in this way accuracy of positioning is facilitated.

The invention will now be described in more detail with reference, by way of example, to the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIGURE 1 shows one form of side-seamed upper in the flat,

FIGURE 2 shows sectionally the form of the skiving for the top edge of the upper,

FIGURE 3 shows the upper of FIGURE 1 back-seamed and in the round,

FIGURE 4 shows the folded skived top edge of the upper, and

FIGURE 5 illustrates an alternative order of assembling the parts of a side-seamed upper.

FIGURE 1 of the accompanying drawings shows a side-seamed leather outer 1 for a shoe upper, comprising a substantially I-shaped main blank 1A and an extension piece 13 which completes the substantially horse-shoe or U-shaped upper. The edges 1C which are put together to form the back seam are straight. During the course of assembly the main blank 1A and extension piece 1B are suitably skived at appropriate edges to form a flat lap side seam 2, preferably secured by a cold bonding adhesive. Before the side seam 2 is made the blank 1A and extension piece 1B are separately prepared along the inner edge 3A and the inner edge 3B respectively, for the purpose of subsequently making a folded top line 4 (FIGURE 3).

The edges 3A and 3B are prepared for top-line folding by making a channel skive 5 (see FIGURE 2) on the flesh side and a rebate skive 6 on the grain side of the outer main blank 1A and of the extension piece 1B. The rebate skive 6 extends inwards a suitable distance (e.g. 4 inch) from the edge 17 of end 7 of the blank and the channel skive 5 in the opposite face of the blank commences a short distance inwards of where the rebate skive 6 terminates. In the floor 8 of channel skive 5 is cut a V-groove 9, that part 8A of the channel floor nearer the edge 17 being made shallower than the remaining and longer part 8B of said channel floor. For example, in an outer blank having a norminal thickness of 0.032 inch the channel may be cut so that the thickness of part 8A is 0.021 inch and that of part 8B is 0.010 inch-the thickness at the deepest point 9A of groove 9 could be about 0.008 inch. In this same example, the distance X of the point 9A from end 8C of the channel skive 5 could conveniently be about & inch, while distance Y to end 8D would be about 13, inch. The thickness of the blank at the rebated skive 6 could be about 3 0.016 inch. It is to be understood that these, and any other dimensions given are simply by way of example and are representative rather than critical.

When edges 3A and 38 have been skived as described above the skived ends of blank 1A and extension piece 1B each have a film of pressure-sensitive adhesive which bonds cold applied thereto and the adhesived skives are then pressed together with edges 3A and 3B contiguous. A moderate consolidating pressure is applied to the lapped skives by suitable means, such as by a power press, by rollers or mechanically driven hammers-the pressure can be from 25 to 40 pounds per square inch or more, as required for effective consolidation.

The next step in assembling the upper is to close the back seam by cold adhesive bonding; it may be found convenient to apply adhesive for back seam bonding while the outer is supported in a shape approximately to that of the upper when closed after back seaming. A closed upper with an adhesive bonded back seam 10 is shown in FIGURE 3, which also illustrates the next assembly step. This next step consists in folding in the edges of the now-joined blank 1A and extension piece 1B, the folding taking place at the thinner portion of these components at point 9A. With outer components dimensioned as exemplified above this folding would bring the edge 17 of end 7 in line with end 8D of the channel skive 5, as indicated in FIGURE 4; at a suitable stage a reinforcing tape 11 of any suitable form is interposed between the infolded end 7 and the floor 8 of skive 5in the example quoted this tape 11 would be about 0.046 inch thick when compressed. The tape may, for example, be applied by a tape laying machine and subsequently folded into the top-line seam. The top-line seam may, however, in many cases be sufficiently strong without the reinforcing tape and in this case the shape of the skive shown in FIGURE 2 is altered accordingly.

At or prior to this stage of folding-in of top-line edges 3A, 3B, the edges of the component parts of a lining 12 are skived with rebate skives and adhesive-bonded. Since the upper outer has already been back-seamed and is thus in the round, one component of the lining 12 may conveniently straddle the back seam 10.

The skived-edge lining 12 is assembled by causing the lining rebate skive 13 (see FIGURE 4) to face the outer rebate skive 6, with the interposition of adhesive 14 of sufficient thickness that the inner face of the lining 12 merges smoothly into the rounded top line 4; the adhesive 14 between rebate skives 13 and 6, and other adhesive 15 used between the main bodies of the outer and the lining are conveniently two-way cold adhesives, that is, layers or films applied to opposing face of components being joined and pressed together under moderate pressure, generally after the layers or films have become tacky. As already intimated, stiffeners, such as a toe puff and a heel counter (in one or more pieces), may be inserted just before the lining 12 is assembled. The various adhesively secured parts, that is, the top-line fold and the lining (with or without stiffeners) may be and preferably are consolidated by the application of pressure by known techniques; at this stage also a back forming or bulging operation may be carried out.

FIGURE 5 illustrates a variation in the method of assembly of the upper. In this instance a J-shaped main blank and an extension are skived and lapped along mating straight edges to form first a straight back seam 22, the seaming being effected in the flat employing a cold bonding adhesive. Whilst the upper remains in the flat, i.e. while it is still laid out flat, heel stiffener and toe puff are applied, preferably by a printing or transfer method but alternatively by a laying-on method. The heel stiffener and toe puff may conveniently be applied simultaneously with each other and at the same time as the adhesive for the top-line folding. The top-line folding may then be performed whilst the outer is in the fiat, the side seam of the outer being effected subsequently by cold bonding, or the side seam may be bonded and the top-line folding effected whilst the outer is in the round. The outer and lining sub-assemblies are secured together in the round.

It will be understood that the heel stiffener and toe puff may instead be secured to the lining sub-assembly whilst the latter is in the flat.

As before, the straight-seamed heel portion is subsequently shaped by a bulging operation.

Throughout the various assemblying operations described use may be made of suitable jigs or formers, with hole or edge notch location by means of pins if required. It is to be understood that cold adhesive seam bonding of an outer (and of a lining if desired) is not restricted to use with top-line folding as herein described and vice versa.

It is common practice to fold and tape in one operation, using, for example, cold latex, or using hot cements, and such techniques could be used in conjunction with the general method described above.

What is claimed is:

1. A method of manufacturing a shoe comprising the step of forming at least some of the seaming of the outer by applying to the edge portions an adhesive which does not require heat for activation of the adhesive and securing edge portions of components of the linning directly together.

2. A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein part or all of that portion of the seam of the outer which is effected by said adhesive is subsequently sewn.

3. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the mating faces of edge portions to be seamed together by said adhesive are skived to reduce the thickness of the edge portions.

4. A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the back seam of the outer is straight and said adhesive is used for forming the back seam.

5. A method as claimed in claim 4 further comprising the step of performing a bulging operation on the heel portion of the shoe after the back seam is formed.

6. A method as claimed in claim 4, wherein the back seam is formed whilst the outer is in the fiat.

7. A method as claimed in claim 6, wherein heel stiffening is applied to the outer after the seam is formed and whilst the outer remains in the flat.

8. A method as claimed in claim 6, wherein a toe puff is applied to the outer after the seam is formed and whilst the outer remains in the fiat.

9. A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the outer has its upper edge portion doubled over inward and bonded upon itself by said adhesive.

10. A method as claimed in claim 9, wherein a groove is skived along the inner face of the shoe outer adjacent the upper edge thereof, which groove defines a line along which the upper edge portion can be doubled over inward.

11. A method as claimed in claim 9, wherein a rebate is skived along the outer face of the upper edge prior to said folding, the upper edge of a lining being secured by said adhesive in the rebate after the folding.

12. A method of manufacturing a shoe comprising the step of forming at least some of the seaming of a lining of the shoe by applying to the edge portions an adhesive which does not require heat for activation of the adhesive and securing edge portions of components of the lining directly together.

13. A method of manufacturing a shoe including the steps of making the back seam of the shoe outer by forming as straight edges those edges of the two parts of the outer which are to be joined together to form the back seam, skiving at least one of said parts to form a zone of reduced thickness along said edge, and securing said two parts together in overlapping relationship along said zone by employing an adhesive which does not require heat for activation of the adhesive, and thereafter performing 5 6 a bulging operation on the shoe outer in the region of 2,487,421 11/1949 Calder 12-146 the back seam to bulge the heel portion of the shoe. 3,317,941 5/1967 Hanson 12-146 References Cited PATRICK D. LAWSON, Primary Examiner. UNITED STATES PATENTS 5 Us. cl. X'R 1,814,518 7/1931 McGrail 12-146 36 46 5 2,316,363 4/1943 Quinn et al. 12-146 

